Great Gatsby Essay

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The word “love” has several different connotations, ranging from a friendly bond to a matrimonious commitment. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, The Great Gatsby, the reader is shown multiple facets of this emotion. These would include, new love, rekindled love, and love struggling to survive. Looking at the relationships between characters,
Fitzgerald reveals that the idea of love can be just as appealing as love itself. The first example of love within the novel would be between Tom Buchanan and Myrtle.
Myrtle is the flamboyant wife of an unwealthy mechanic living in the most undesirable part of
New York. This is in sharp contrast to the life and style of Mr. Tom Buchanan. He is a wealthy, educated, married man with enough money to last Myrtle ten lifetimes. Their relationship is complicated. This is because Myrtle is the other half of Tom’s infidelity. Early in the novel, the narrator, Nick Carraway, is having dinner at the Buchanan household, when suddenly a phone call interrupts the evening. After Tom excuses himself to answer his call, guest Jordan
Baker explains to Nick “Tom’s got some woman in New York.” This quote shows that the topic of an affair is not as taboo as one might assume. Also, in the way Jordan reveals Myrtle as
“some woman” implies that this may have not been the first affair Tom had participated in. As their relationship evolves throughout the course of the novel, the reader sees their unequal passions. Myrtle has the dream to be swept away from her husband by Tom. She wishes for a better life, and Tom was the only way out to her. When at a gettogether with Tom, Myrtle decides she cannot stand his marriage anymore. She goes on a dramatic rant about how he will not divorce his wife, and just live with her. This tantrum results in a shouting match from
Tom and ultimately ends with the brutish side of him rising to the surface, and forcefully hitting
Myrtle in an attemot to stop her speaking. Myrtle eventually forgives Tom however, which shows that he truly is the only way out of poverty to her. She crawls back to him because she

knows that without him, the possibility of a better life would crumble before her. Tom’s ideas, however, differ entirely. Tom is running after The thought that if he is loved by more than one woman, it proves that he is the wealthy and successful man he strived to be. The affair is
Tom’s attempt at receiving more love, but the actions toward Myrtle reveal his true feelings.
By not allowing her to even speak Daisy’s name, Fitzgerald reveals that Tom still loves Daisy.
Him abusing her in front of partygoers shows how passionate he feels about his wife, and that he wants to protect her, even when he is breaking the rules of their marriage. Tom is an abominable husband, but this is because he is not in love with Myrtle, he is chasing the thought of her love adding to his ego. The rekindled love of Jay “Gatsby” Gats and Daisy Buchanan is another example of love within The Great Gatsby. Gatsby and Daisy met when they were seven years younger, when
Gatsby was but a returning soldier without a penny to his name. Daisy at this time, was an upper class southern belle. After their first meeting, a whirlwind romance ensued. However, it ended with Gatsby revealing that he would no longer pursue Daisy until he had become what she deserved. And what she deserved was a socialite and an opulent businessman. The entire premise of Gatsby’s existence, is that he is trying to win Daisy back from the clutches of her marriage. He has the plan to take her away from Tom and live the ideal life with her.
However, the particularities of this plan are revealed upon his meeting of Daisy’s child. When her child is told to say “Howdy­do.” to Gatsby, the shallowness of his plans becomes apparent. Since he had not taken into account that Daisy would have had a child by this time, his ambitions seemed to be ruined. He only wanted Daisy, not the offspring of
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